Patrick Kane overtime hero again as Blackhawks eliminate Wild

Wild defenceman Clayton Stoner (left) attempts to block a pass by Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane (right) during first period action of Game 6 in their second round playoff series in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. (Marilyn Indahl/USA TODAY Sports)

The defending Stanley Cup champions reached the Western Conference final by dispatching a plucky Minnesota Wild squad in six games in the second round, capped by Tuesday's 2-1 overtime victory.

The black-and-white facts don't show how much the Wild had the Hawks on the ropes all night and deserved to push the series to a seventh-and-deciding game, but thanks to the goaltending of Corey Crawford and one bounce finished off by Patrick Kane really was the difference.

“Tonight was pretty lucky,” Kane said, knowing he and his teammates dodged a bullet by not having to go to Game 7.

Instead, they'll move on to face the winner of the Southern California showdown between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, which Anaheim leads 3-2.

You make your breaks, but Kane's winner 9:42 into the overtime was more a knife to the heart for the Wild considering how much of a thriller the affair was before the sold out Xcel Energy Crowd of 19,396.

Brent Seabrook's dump-in bounced off the stanchion and went to the low slot, where Kane picked it up and lifted a shot past Ilya Bryzgalov for his fourth career overtime winner.

“He’s a special player,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said of Kane. “Guys have that instinct, that knack of finding pucks, wanting to be out there, wanting to score. He does his thing.”

Kane's ‘thing’, was crushing the Wild.

“We were all kind of in shock that it happened. It’s not the way you envision losing a series because of that,” Minnesota winger Zach Parise said. “It can't get any worse than losing like that. You shouldn't lose like that.”

“I didn't see that happening,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “I felt like this was a game we were gonna win. I know that's a great team, and congratulations to the Blackhawks, they're probably as close to a dynasty as you can have right now and they're still building on it, but we thought we were gonna win.”

The hosts sure had their chances.

After Chicago's Kris Versteeg opened the scoring before the two-minute mark - on his birthday, no less - the ice tilted in Minnesota's favour.

And once Wild rookie Erik Haula tied it early in the second period, it set the wheels in motion for as entertaining of a period as any fan could dream about.

Amidst the fantastic frame was all kind of scoring chances at both ends of the rink, while the hosts recorded a 14-8 edge in shots with frenetic pace.

In one sequence, Crawford stopped Jason Pominville on a partial break, and the rebound nearly went in off Johnny Oduya into the net, immediately followed by a breakaway pass for Chicago's Patrick Sharp, who couldn't convert on Bryzgalov. Seconds later, Crawford had to deny Justin Fontaine on another golden chance.

Had it not been for Crawford, who stopped 34 shots in total, the hosts would have been home and cooled by the second intermission.

“That was a pretty exciting feeling when that one went in,” Crawford said. “A little relief, too, to get this thing finished. That was a tough team. I mean, they played really hard in this building. In Chicago, too.

“They kept coming at us. Tough series, really tough series. I don’t know, we just have that confidence, though, going into overtime, felt like we were going to get it done. After maybe about the first three minutes, we started getting it going. Seemed like we dominated from there.”

Since their return to glory, starting with the 2009 playoffs, the Blackhawks are perfect in eight tries when looking to close out a series in Game 6, with six of those wins coming on the road.

They also sport a 12-2 mark when given a chance to close out a series, with one loss coming before they won the next game and the other in a Game 7 loss to the Vancouver Canucks after erasing a 3-0 deficit in the series.

Oh yeah, they also have won two Cups.

Meanwhile the Wild have to look at this spring as a big step forward to even greater days.

“You don't really feel that way right now,” captain Mikko Koivu said. “I'm sure it's gonna hit later on, when you look back on the season and what we went through, but right now it's an empty feeling, and it goes deep.”

BRYZ NO GOAT

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford gets to be the hero.

In no way can Minnesota Wild netminder Ilya Bryzgalov be called the goat, even if Crawford made 34 saves and he surrendered the winner despite less work.

“Definitely a tough one the way it ended, but he should be very proud of the way he played,” Wild head coach Mike Yeo said after his team's 2-1 loss that ended the series in six games.

Bryzgalov's arrival in Minnesota just before the trade deadline was supposed to about adding a veteran backup for a team with a couple of netminders dealing with health or injury issues.

When Darcy Kuemper was also injured, first late in the regular season but also in Game 7 of the opening round victory, Bryzgalov stepped into the breach. He backstopped them to a playoff spot and then within a whisker of Game 7 against the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the second round.

Not bad for a guy who was bought out of a massive contract by the Philadelphia Flyers last summer, was without a team to start the year, and played in the ECHL before being signed by the Oilers.

“I'm really proud of him, what he brought to our group,” Yeo said. “We all heard stories about Bryz, but all I can say is this guy was an unbelievable teammate. He came into some really tough situations and he was incredibly bought-in to our team.”